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TLW

By TLW •

Klopp: Key decision makers of the game do not care about player welfare

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Jurgen Klopp has once again implored the governing body of the game to be extremely sensitive  to the issue of player burnout.

 

The footballing calendar has never been more congested than this current era with. tournaments which were scheduled to be played in the off-season now being played during peak periods of the campaign such as the upcoming AFCON.

 

Players are also seeing their summer breaks greatly reduced due to the implementation of the UEFA Nations League fixtures played during that period.

 

In these days of intense cost of living pressures for the everyday individual, sympathy is never going to be high on the scale especially given the average weekly wage the top players receive.

 

Klopp has been a unrelenting advocate for player welfare since coming to England, where he is often bemused by the lack of a genuine winter break and the frequency of early kick-offs on Saturday that Liverpool are fixtured for.

 

Speaking about the issue at length once again (per the Mirror), Klopp said important decisions need to be made but openly questioning if there is willingness to do so.

 

“The people who decide don’t care. There isn’t one guy deciding who can remember what it was like when he was a player - if he ever was a player. That’s how it is. I won’t be in there deciding and I won’t have the power for that.

 

“At some point, someone will have to press the brake. But we are obviously not in charge because, if football people were in charge, it would look completely different. Not because we are lazy, but because we are the people who really understand the intensity of what the boys are doing."

 

Klopp believes whatever field of work an individual undertakes, it is going to take a toll and he is not underplaying what a general person goes through on a daily basis.

 

However for those who are athletes for a living, he says there is only so much a body can take on a physical level.

 

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“The outside world discusses it and say ‘I work eight hour a day, seven days a week’ - and that’s 100 percent true. It’s just that they don’t run, sprint, tackle, sprint. You can’t compare it. If we did compare it, that would be dumb. It’s just a different intensity - and it is really difficult for the human body as we know it, to deal with.

 

“Now UEFA and FIFA are arranging a new tournament - and suddenly getting a winter break in January is the smallest problem. When is the new Club World Cup? Is it 2025? In the summer? I don’t know how to compare that to anything else, where you take time off your best employees and then just think ‘they will go again and play a full season’.”

 

The winter break issue always raises debate whichever side of the fence you sit on.

 

Those teams that are not in European Cup competitions and who do not often progress to the business end of the FA/League Cups would not have nearly as many issues with playing on unabated compared to the elite teams of the division that regularly have two games a week.

 

“I read what Sean (Dyche) said about it - that it just favours the bigger clubs - but I think the facts are on the table.

 

“He said that it would be cool if we could take some games out of a really busy December and put them into January. That might be an idea, but it would then kill the winter break.

 

"There’s so much tradition in this competition. If I, as a German, stood here and said stuff about the FA Cup… I love the FA Cup. It’s just so difficult to stay on your feet and get through these rounds.

 

“You need a top squad to get to the end - and that also means moving other games. If you get through to the final of the Carabao Cup then it takes a league game out and you have to fit it in somewhere where it definitely won’t fit in. It’s unbelievably tricky.”

 

But despite the fixtures coming thick and fast, Klopp was adamant that there would be no weakened side for their clash against Arsenal today.

 

"Can you go to Arsenal and play a team with boys in a situation that Arsenal are in and will probably go all in? Of course not. We are Liverpool we can't go there like that.

 

“Four years ago, we played Everton and it was one of the biggest nights of our lives. We went into an Everton derby game with a very young team and somehow we won. It was great.

 

“All the boys with us in the dressing room are ready for games. That's how it is. There is no doubt about it. That is our life and the life of the boys. We have to make sure we get through.”

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an tha
6 hours ago, Pete said:

Cue Klopp moaning articles & comments from all the ‘experts’. 

Is right.

 

Snide comments, eye rolls, shouts of just get on with it and so on.

 


From the same 'experts' who keep going on about poor old Saudi Arabia's injury crisis, without ever joining the fucking dots....

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Jordy Brouwer

Its a very important issue. Overplaying players leads to shortened careers and medical issues later in life. 

 

However charity begins at home. 

 

We can't just blame the games decision makers when our own owners have become reluctant to do business in the transfer market over and above the minimum they can get away with. 

 

We have a squad that varies between "nicely lean" in some areas to "looking a bit thin" in others. In those areas we are only one or two injuries from it being "painfully thin."

 

That's not the end of the world. I actually prefer it to the Houllier days when we had a huge, bloated squad full of mediocrity and a lot of older players playing in the reserves. Having a too large squad causes resentment and blocks the development of young talent. 

 

Our backline is painfully thin at the moment due to injuries. It means we are going to have to keep playing the same players with little rotation. 

 

That isn't the game decision makers fault. 

 

I'd be happier with this kind of moral posturing if a certain Mr Henry would get his wallet out and buy an additional defender.

 

So we are doing our own bit for player welfare. 

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3 Stacks
35 minutes ago, Jordy Brouwer said:

Its a very important issue. Overplaying players leads to shortened careers and medical issues later in life. 

 

However charity begins at home. 

 

We can't just blame the games decision makers when our own owners have become reluctant to do business in the transfer market over and above the minimum they can get away with. 

 

We have a squad that varies between "nicely lean" in some areas to "looking a bit thin" in others. In those areas we are only one or two injuries from it being "painfully thin."

 

That's not the end of the world. I actually prefer it to the Houllier days when we had a huge, bloated squad full of mediocrity and a lot of older players playing in the reserves. Having a too large squad causes resentment and blocks the development of young talent. 

 

Our backline is painfully thin at the moment due to injuries. It means we are going to have to keep playing the same players with little rotation. 

 

That isn't the game decision makers fault. 

 

I'd be happier with this kind of moral posturing if a certain Mr Henry would get his wallet out and buy an additional defender.

 

So we are doing our own bit for player welfare. 

We have 5 senior forwards, 8 senior midfielders, 4 senior CB's, not counting Quansah, and 2 senior left backs. The only area not overwhelmingly accounted for depth wise to start with, is right back.

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Aventus

Having more subs is supposed to be the thing that made things easier on the players, problem is UEFA and Fifa always need to squeeze that little bit more out of the calendar every single time. 

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Razoray
10 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

We have 5 senior forwards, 8 senior midfielders, 4 senior CB's, not counting Quansah, and 2 senior left backs. The only area not overwhelmingly accounted for depth wise to start with, is right back.

If you count Gomez as a right back, Quansah as a senior player and Elliott as a forward then you have cover for every position. 

Granted, long-term injuries to Thiago and Matip have reduced the depth but we have the deepest squad in the league in terms of quality and quantity. 

No other club in the league could field two teams as strong as:

Alisson 

TAA Matip VVD Robertson 

Szoboszlai Mac Allister Jones

Salah Nunez Diaz 

 

Kelleher 

Gomez Konate Quansah Tsimikas 

Thiago Endo Gravenberch 

Elliott Jota Gakpo 

 

with Adrian, Bajcetic, Bradley and  Doak as backup. 

 

It probably suits Klopp that Matip and Thiago are nearing the end of their contracts and they are the two with serious injury issues and play in the positions that need strengthening the most. You would expect a midfielder and defender in the summer. 

The club are a bit slow to cover every eventuality but we have had decent (theoretically) cover for every position for 3 years now. 

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